Yuji Horii

Yuji Horii is a Japanese video game designer best known as the co-creator of the Dragon Quest series (along with character designer Akira Toriyama and music composer Koichi Sugiyama). At a time when console RPGs were virtually non-existent, Dragon Quest revolutionized the genre and triggered a gaming explosion in Japan, with other RPGs such as Final Fantasy following its wake.

Horii graduated from Waseda University's Department of Literature. He also worked as a freelance writer for magazines, newspapers, and comics. He placed in an Enix-sponsored game programming contest with a tennis computer game, motivating him to become a game designer. After creating two simple game designs, his inspiration from American RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons led him to create Dragon Quest. Everything from the story, dialog, and even the rough ideas for the monsters come from him. He is often referred to as the first video game author.¹²